New Software Could Send Cost of Bridges Falling Down

A new software program will help
engineers estimate the costs of building and maintaining bridges made of new materials.
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and
Technology have developed BridgeLCC (LCC stands for life cycle costs), which enables
engineers to evaluate cost implications of using new materials ranging from
high-performance concrete to fiber-reinforced-polymer composites. Federal, state and local
governments are forecast to spend an estimated $90 billion on repairing bridges. The shift
to new materials may help lower the costs of rebuilding and maintaining this bridge
infrastructure.

The software program allows engineers to compare life-cycle costs of using conventional
materials, such as steel or concrete, and newer materials, such as high-performance steel
and new applications of aluminum. For example, the program would help analyze costs of
substituting fiber-reinforced-polymer composites for steel that is typically used in
steel-reinforced concrete. The program also can analyze the costs of building bridge decks
made exclusively of fiber-reinforced-polymer composites.

BridgeLCC currently is being beta-tested by bridge engineers in seven state departments
of transportation and several private engineering firms. Researchers in the NIST Building and Fire Research Laboratory expect to
complete beta-testing and make the program available early this year.

NIST Develops Oxygen Liquefier Technology for Use on Mars

NASA has determined that any Mars lander that returns to Earth should make its own
liftoff fuel on the surface of Mars rather than carry it onboard and cause weight
problems. But how do you make liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen (or, perhaps, methane)
some 249 million miles from earth?

NASA needs to establish a chemical plant on Mars to convert carbon dioxide, which
comprises 95 percent of the Martian atmosphere, into oxygen, liquefy it, condense and
store it, and then use it as a fuel oxidizer. Working with NASA, the NIST Cryogenic Technologies
Group has developed a prototype system that utilizes a pulse-tube refrigerator to
liquefy the oxygen. The NIST system is efficient, reliable, low weight and compact. Early
this year at the NASA Johnson Spaceflight Center, the prototype system will undergo
additional laboratory testing and integration with other systems. NIST scientists will
continue to consult with NASA right up until the anticipated launch of the first
round-trip robotic mission to Mars in 2007. A manned mission to Mars is not expected
before 2015.

When the Dust Settles, New NIST Standard is Tops

Whether theyre getting their kicks
on Route 66 or takin it easy in Winslow, lyricists have long romanticized Arizona
highways. Now scientists at the National Institute of
Standards and Technology are using mineral dust from Arizona roads in a much-needed
Standard Reference Material that will help accurately assess wear and tear on hydraulic
equipment. Arizona road dust has a long history as a standard for gauging filter
efficiency, dating back to the 1940s when military vehicles at a test track in Arizona
drove one behind another to evaluate how well their filters tolerated dust. Since then,
the use of dust from Arizona has been specified in various standards for testing particle
counters and filters.

Today, keeping high-tech productsfrom pharmaceuticals to electronics to space
suitsfree of contaminating particles is critical to their performance. NISTs
new Standard Reference Material
2806, Medium Test Dust in Hydraulic Fluid, was developed in collaboration with the
National Fluid Power Association to calibrate automatic particle counters. Such counters
help equipment operators determine when hydraulic fluid in trucks, airplanes, assembly
lines, power plants and other heavy equipment needs to be changed. The improved accuracy
of the new SRM over previous calibration methods could help extend the useful life of
hydraulic equipment. The new standard will lead to more effective contamination
control programs resulting in lower operating costs, less downtime and increased
reliability, according to the National Fluid Power Association.

Prolific NIST Researcher Crosses Scientific Boundaries

John Cahn might be considered a
scientists scientist.

The mathematicians consider me a mathematician; the physicists consider me a
physicist; the chemical engineers think Im one of theirs, said Cahn, who last
month received the nations highest scientific honor, the 1998 National Medal of
Science. Cahns first major achievement came in 1961, when he and researcher John
Hilliard created an equation that was to keep mathematicians busy for decades. The
Cahn-Hilliard equation, originally devised to solve a problem related to alloys, has since
been applied to everything from cosmology and physics to biology and population dynamics.

During his 40-year career, Cahn has had a profound influence on the progress of
materials and mathematics research. He is perhaps most widely known for his co-discovery
in 1984 of materials now classified as quasicrystals, which brought about a
revolution in the field of crystallography.

That was pure serendipity, said Cahn, who estimates that 10,000 research
papers have since been published about quasicrystals.

New Precision Manufacturing Technology Has Magnetic Personality

Forget about holding lists on the fridge,
an engineering company in Ohio has a way to use magnetism to rapidly fashion
high-performance gears and other auto-motive parts. Gears and other parts that have to be
tough, durable and built to precise tolerances are conventionally made by forging a
blank and then carefully cutting and grinding to get the finished product, a
laborious and expensive process.

A lower-cost alternative is powder compactionvery fine metal or
ceramic powders are simultaneously heated and compressed in a mold to produce parts that
are close to final dimensions and need only a little finishing. But parts made this way
have not been denseand hence strongenough for demanding applications like
powertrain gears.

Until now. IAP Research, Inc., a small Dayton company, loads metal powder into an
electrically conductive container, and places the container in an electromagnetic coil. A
pulse of high electric current generates a magnetic pressure wave that collapses the
container in on itself, squeezing powder into high-density parts in an instant. IAP
developed the new process in a joint venture with General Motors Powertrain Division
(Pontiac, Mich.), Zenith Sintered Products, Inc. (Germantown, Wis.), and Delphi Energy
& Engine Management Systems (Anderson, Ind.) under an award from the National Institute of Standards and TechnologysAdvanced Technology Program.

New Data Support Theory About Titanic Rivets

Recent
findings by National Institute of Standards and Technology
metallurgist Timothy Foecke have supported his earlier research
showing that weak rivets may have contributed to the Titanics
sinking. The new findings also provide strong evidence to
dispel an older theory, that the steel plates making up the hull
became as brittle as glass from the cold ocean water and that
they shattered upon collision with the iceberg.

His microscopic analyses of small wrought-iron rivets recovered from the
Titanics hull have revealed that the metal contained three times the amount of
slag (the glassy residue left behind after the smelting of ore) allowed at the time,
making it more brittle than it should have been. Therefore, Titanics
collision with the iceberg may have caused the rivet heads to break off, popping the
fasteners from their holes, and allowed water to rush in between the separated hull
plates, speeding the ships descent.

His theory, first proposed last February, was based on data from two rivets. Since then
he has analyzed an additional 28 rivets14 of which proved to have a slag content
similar to the original two rivetssupporting the weak rivets theory, said Foecke,
who reported his most recent findings during a meeting of the Materials Research Society
in December. Foecke said he is planning to conduct further research, including mechanical
tests on the recovered rivets, in attempts to tie behavior to the observed
microstructures.

The National Bureau of Standards (now NIST) opened two years before it joined 11
other agencies in the Department of Commerce and Labor in 1903. Sister agencies were the
Bureaus of Census, Corporations, Fisheries, Immigration, Labor, Manufacturers, Navigation,
and Statistics; the Lighthouse Board, the Steamboat Inspection Service and the Coast and
Geodetic Survey.

The first payroll statement (totaling $775 for a half-month of wages) for the National
Bureau of Standards (now NIST) on July 15, 1901, listed 10 men and one woman as employees.
The highest annual salary was $5,000 for NBS Director Samuel W. Stratton; the lowest was
$600 for laborer George Draper.

The first successful guided missile, nicknamed the Bat, was developed by the National
Bureau of Standards (now NIST) in 1944. The Bat illuminated its target with a beam of
shortwave radiation and locked in by radar on the reflected signal. It was the only
automatic homing weapon used in World War II by the United States.